News

Volvo C30 designer to appear at Montreal auto show

What a difference a year makes. Almost exactly 12 months ago, organizers took public exception to Volvo Canada for not exhibiting vehicles at the Montreal International Auto Show; Volvo retorted equally publicly that it had found better ways to promote its vehicles, even though Montreal is one of Volvo's largest markets in North America.

This year, Volvo Canada will be back at the show, its president Steve Blyth says, while the Quebec-born designer of the company's upcoming C30 hatchback may very well be the (human) star of the show.

“I have plans to make it back for the Montreal auto show,” said Simon Lemarre, the lead designer of the C30, who was born in Ste. Therese, Que., although he noted that those plans were still not finalized. “The C30 should do very well there, because they love their small cars.”

Lemarre made his comments at Volvo's stand last week in Las Vegas at the SEMA show, where he first took in the three Volvo C30s modified for the specialty equipment show. The 39th Montreal show runs Jan. 19-28, 2007, and if Lemarre does show up, Volvo will have jumped from a non-player to prime newsmaker at the MIAS, held at the Palais des Congrès of Montréal.Compacts without side airbags dominate ‘least-safe' list

Side airbags are a critical safety feature on compact cars, because without them they as a group form some of the least-safe new cars you can buy, according to the Forbes.com website.

The list used data that came out of crash tests performed by the U.S. Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, which released figures last month that indicated that drivers in cars equipped with side bags were 37 per cent more likely to survive a driver-side crash.

The list found that the least-safe cars for 2007 were small cars (which generally have less crush space) not equipped with side airbags, such as the Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Cobalt, Ford Focus, Mazda3 sedan and Saturn Ion. The Suzuki Aerio and Forenza were also both on this list, but are not sold here. In Canada, as in the United States, side bags are optional in these cars, but many buyers in this price-sensitive segment don't opt for them.

To find the least-safe new car, which, you should note, is very different from a “dangerous” car, the list examined a car's accident-avoidance features; results of crash tests, which are conducted in controlled environments; and real-world data, in the rates of injury claims filed per vehicle.

Auto makers singled out on the list took exception to the criteria, most of them arguing about various flaws in the IIHS's testing procedures, as well as the fairness of singling out poor test scores in one area despite multiple good scores in others.

“You cannot draw these kinds of conclusions from the data,” a Ford spokesman said of the Focus, arguing that the IIHS' side impact test is really just a test of side airbag presence and that front collision scores are more relevant. He also argued, as did other manufacturer representatives, that not all models on the market are crash-tested by the IIHS, nor the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, so some vehicles with worse scores in some areas did not make the list.Honda debuts Canada-only CSX Type-S

Debunking the myth of Canadian parsimony when it comes to vehicles, or at least challenging that view, Honda Canada has decided not to bring in the Civic Si sedan that just went on sale in the United States, in favour of a mechanically identical Acura CSX Type-S.

Comparing prices between the two, the Acura is considerably more expensive than the Si sedan even after an exchange rate equalization, although the CSX Type-S does come with more standard equipment and a longer warranty than its American Honda counterpart.

The Civic Si sedan starts at $21,290 (U.S.), or $24,697 (Canadian), while the Acura CSX Type-S starts at $33,400, and officially hit dealers this week. And no, the Type-S is not a version of the Mugen Civic Si prototype with the trick suspension, nor even the Si sedan with the Honda Factory Performance package on it, two factory-modified Si four-door performers both shown at SEMA last week. The Civic Si two-door sold here, which features the same 197-hp, 2.0-litre engine, six-speed manual transmission and limited-slip differential as the Type-S, starts at $26,380.

So what exactly does that extra eight grand or so buy you, besides an Acura badge and, in this country, two more doors? A year more basic warranty coverage, for starters, up to four years or 80,000 km instead of Honda's three years or 60K. Leather seats, automatic climate control, high intensity headlights, extra noise insulation, electronic stability control and a voice-activated navigation system are all standard on the Type-S, although the latter two are available on the Si sedan as options.

DaimlerChrysler does deal with Aeroplan

Having been burned by the lack of interest this year in employee-discount incentive deals —which worked so well for it last year — DaimlerChrysler Canada is getting creative, and has signed on for a nine-week, end-of-year promotion with Aeroplan.

Buyers of Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler vehicles sold between Nov. 1 and Jan 7 will be offered 40,000 Aeroplan miles along with their purchase. Those with large Aeroplan accounts can get a $400 discount on any eligible vehicle by redeeming 50,000 of these miles, up to and including the entire price of the car.

DaimlerChrysler is also offering a chance to win weekly prizes of a million Aeroplan miles for anyone who test drives one of their vehicles, with buyers and lessees being automatically entered.

Unfortunately, according to the www.daimlerchrysler.ca/aeroplan website, which has complete info on the program, there are many DaimlerChrysler vehicles not eligible for these discounts, including most of their new-for-2007 models: Dodge Caliber and Nitro; Jeep Wrangler, Wrangler Unlimited and Compass; and Chrysler Aspen and Sebring. Most 2006s are eligible, save for diesel versions of the Ram and Jeep Liberty, and Grand Cherokee SRT8.

The majority of 2007 regular and extended-length minivans are eligible, as are most new Ram pickups, although the site does state that eligible vehicles may change throughout the life of the program.